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Tim Pawlenty on Mitt Romney 'gifts': They didn’t elect Obama

Tim Pawlenty on Friday disputed Mitt Romney’s controversial remarks claiming that President Barack Obama won reelection by handing out “gifts” to his core constituencies, saying in an interview that American voters do not have the mentality of, “I’m going to vote because of gifts.”

“I think President Obama, first of all, just tactically did a better job getting out the vote in his campaign. But No. 2, he, at least at the margins, was better able to connect with people in this campaign,” Pawlenty said in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program scheduled to air on Sunday.

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“But I don’t think it’s a matter of people looking at the election and saying, ‘I’m going to vote because of gifts,’” he added. “I think they looked at it and said which one of these candidates would they prefer because of leadership considerations and also can understand their needs the best.”

Pressed on whether this meant he disagreed with Romney’s remarks, Pawlenty responded, “You know, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying the president gave out gifts. I just don’t think it’s that simple. There’s a lot more to it than that.”

Pawlenty also noted that the 2012 election should serve as a “wake-up call” for the Republican Party, and the former presidential candidate said the GOP must find a way to better appeal to female, blue-collar and Latino and Hispanic voters.

The former Minnesota governor, who stepped down from his Romney surrogate role in September to become the new CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, was responding to remarks that the ex-GOP candidate made on a conference call with donors this week.

Romney campaigned, in private, on giving massive gifts to the people who least need them. Publicly, his campaign changed "message" so often that who knows what he was running on. I think a majority of voters realized that whatever he was going to do was not going to be good for the average American, just as the policies of Obama's predecessor was not good for us. At best, it seemed that Romney planned a return to those same policies, and that, as we've seen, was a gift for none but a handsomely rich few.

I'll bet you'd never say something in public that you meant for a small, select audience. Unfortunately Romney's campaign was infiltrated, military-style, by Democrat operatives and he could have no private conversations that could not be used against him in the campaign. And every move that Romney made, the President seemed to be there ahead of him. Eerie.

Not accusing, but actions were taken by Nixon that had the same results ... and he got impeached for it.

Romney's attempts to characterize the people who voted Obama into office is both disingenuous and delusional. Each candidate received votes from many different groups within our overall population. Did Obama’s coalition of voters feature some who are dependent on government? Certainly. Did it feature some who were reacting to the personal benefit they would receive from an Obama victory? No doubt. But ask yourself the following: Were racists a portion of Romney’s coalition? You bet they were. And Romney had lots of little subtle messages reminding them how they would benefit from his being elected (i.e. not so many blacks in high office).What about misogynists? Did they perhaps make up a portion of Romney’s voting bloc? Again, I’m sure that they did. And while Romney himself didn’t have a lot to say that was blatantly anti-female, he certainly cozied up to some of the most misogynistic candidates for congress that we’ve seen in many years. And what about unabashed plutocrats, who think that being born to wealth obviously points to genetic superiority? Any of those voting for Romney? Two words to answer that question….Donald Trump. So, given a choice between a candidate who’s coalition features some poor people hoping for some additional government support and another candidate who’s coalition features racists, misogynists and plutocrats, give me the former every time. Buh-bye Mitt.

Romney was closer to the truth than he is getting credit for. Obama won because he divided Americans into groups and in some case made phony claims such as the war on women. Romney's campaign also failed due to the failure of the management of the Republican party. The party management really blew it when they allowed that circus of primaries to go on. Some of those candidates were certifiable like the corndog lady.

If the Republicans can get their act together they have a good message on economic issues. America has been the land of opportunity and we are loosing that. The Republicans are right on on those issues. On social issues they are way off the mark. For example abortion is a legal issue and it should be left to the courts and the party should have no opinion on it. Same with same sex marriage. On immigration they should support securing the border as a first step and then work toward resolving the status of those hard working illegals who are not involved otherwise in criminal activity.

I think Romney was the better candidate of the two and definitely the better man. We are all going to pay the price for the choice we made. I can only hope people have a bit more of an open mind next election cycle and that the Republican party gets some new blood in its management.

ROFL. You aren't really that dumb are you? Nixon HIRED the people who broke into the Democratic HQ, and PAID them out of campaign slush funds. Virtually everything they did was illegal on a base level (i.e. breaking and entering, forgery, fraud, etc.). They actually sent out mailings on forged democratic letterhead saying outrageous things which were 'signed' (forged) by democrat candidates!!! In no way does that compare to taping something that a Candidate ACTUALLY SAYS!! Plus, a private citizen videotaping a sleazebag making a speech is not illegal. Plus, there is zero evidence that anyone who taped Romney at any time was in any way affiliated with any Democratic campaign. SO, nice try but it couldn't be any further from what Nixon 'got impeached for'......

It is hard to see who of his detractors had the best handle on Romney. Gingrich and Perry pointed to an unsavory vulture capitalist business. Even the Wall Street Journal weighed in, before Romney was running for president, to point out that it was a poorly run business compared to its peers and made a lott of money while the businesses it was managing failed. The self-righteousness, frequently associated with politicians, did not begin to describe Romney. He seemed completely unfazed to be caught in an outright lie. The Chrysler lie was so onerous that the CEO of Chrysler had to deny it before it did further damage to the auto company. If one watched Romney's face during the last debate, one saw an almost glazed over look, was he drugged or was he simply out of his depth, one can only speculate. Ann may have pegged him during an interview where she said that Mitt gets depressed during times when he does not get his way. At no time, did Romney ever get close to understanding that most college bound students do not have a trust fund to cash in on as he and Ann did. He advised parents to go deep into debt to fund the education of their children, not realizing that most families who can and many who cannot afford to take that prescription do it already. Many of these have mortgages that are underwater. Many have gone bankrupt after losing jobs. In the world of Mitt these are weak people. They are the ones who defend us the 47%, oh he did not really mean that. They are the ones who have retired, oops he did not mean that either. They are the ones who went to war when Mitt opted for French girls. People who succeed on their own do not exist, they always have help. The great ones remember that. The Romney's and the Koch's made their money the old fashion way, they inherited it. They never had to scrape,to save, to wonder where the next meal was coming from. He lost because despite of his wealth, despite his family, despite all his good fortune, he is a failure as a human being. Were there any doubt before the election,Romney has already dispelled that.

The secret 47 % video . " I stand by what I said " , a couple weeks later , " I was completely wrong " , now that he lost the election he's repeating what he said in the first place . LOL . The man is a disgrace . History will not be kind to Willard .

It was a candidate , an ideology and an agenda that voters rejected . I hope the Republicons stay the course , the truth is their enemy and time is running out on them .

Romney lost due to his own words coming out of his own mouth. It never helps a campaign to be caught saying you don't care about 47% of the electorate. Not to mention, he changed directions on issues so many times that it would have been easy to mistake him for a windsock.

Mr. Romney, you lost because the American people in the end found you untrustworthy!!!

Not accusing, but actions were taken by Nixon that had the same results ... and he got impeached for it.

Riiiiight and I bet you thought it was unethical for Obama's "guns and religion" comment to be leaked, lol. Romney got caught espousing his philosophy in that video tape and just doubled down in the post election call to his donors because he simply cannot admit he lost because a) he was terrible candidate and b) he ran a terrible campaign.

the GOP is in one heck of a mess. As a female minority, reaching retirement thus thinking seriioiusly about healthcare woman....I would never be convinced to vote for any of the people quoted here today. Not Martinez, or Pawlenty or Jindal, not even Christi, especially not another Bush....jeez who is left? Huntsman

There sure are a lot of Ultra Liberals commenting on this article and of course all of them are Experts in the Political arena, hell, they probably don't even vote, but, anyway, Romney was absolutely correct.....all of you should go to your local Social Services Office and hear and see all the Obama decals on cars, obama tee shirts, obama free cell phones with free minutes, free food stamps, free housing, free daycare, free medicaid including free doctor's visits, free prescription drugs for the entire family and most of these freeloaders have at least ten family members...free energy for heat and air, free transportation, etc, etc.... I know this to be true because I work at a Social Services Office and have for the last twenty years.....so, I know first hand what the real deal is and none of you do, you should come into my world and really see why obama won and one more thing, the Latino's are out in force and receive Free everything that you can receive.....so, Romney was correct, obama is a rock-star in the Welfare Offices, the Health dept and anywhere else these people can receive a FREE Handout....and I really don't care whether any of you Liberals believe me or not, but, you should visit your local SS Office and volunteer for about six months, you might actually learn something about what I've already mentioned, plus Abused Children and Senior Citizens every single Day....go and see the real world or do you plan to shut that part of America out of your life.....I believe the latter......

I was a Republican for 35 years and now an Independent. The reason that Romney lost has nothing to do with the GOP ground game, clear message, latinos or not. The reason Romney lost is the GOP platform. Waaayyy too far right socially, economically, religiously etc. It wasn't that people didn't vote for Romney they voted against the GOP party platform. All the current wanna be's (Jindal, Waters, McDonnell, Pawlenty) were all Romney just two weeks ago and all GOP platform. Until the GOP moves back to center as a party and platform the result will be the same. Party platform extreamism is not electable.

I do believe this election will probably be the final tipping point for the Republican party. We are seeing vast numbers of younger voters, minority voters (Latino's, African-Americans, Asians), women and the like who are simply out-voting Republicans with sheer numbers. Despite throwing 6B in advertising it was a total waste of money.

This demographic group statistically outnumbers the old Republican constituency and if a peek at Latin America, Asia & Africa is any clue those birth rates will climb higher.

Yes, the GOP is in real trouble.

Personally, I feel it's time for a new, well educated conservative party to come into being. It needs to achieve the following:

2. Not go off to fight wars, as Ron Paul clearly states (yes, he's right on wars...huge waste of federal treasury cash...especially when accompanied by tax cut for the 1%, which leaves the middle class to pay the bill).

If it can achieve these 5 critical things I believe many Americans would support a new political party. Sadly, I really don't think the GOP can or will change. It hasn't much since I've been alive. Perhaps an energized libertarian party could do it, but they don't seem to care or have a clue on the details of lowering health care costs.

For now, the Democratic party seems to have the smartest, most diverse make up of representatives. They have delivered for America, notjust the 1%. They fight to bring American jobs home. They fight to end wars and defend our nation. They have laid the architecture to reduce the federal deficit. They have fought to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Yes, they are making all the right moves. Republicans have A LOT of catching up to do and a lot of soul searching.